(JNS.org) Nearly half of Israelis, 48 percent, support the right of the group known as Women of the Wall to hold traditional Jewish prayer services at the Western Wall, according to a recent poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University, Israel Hayom reported.

The results of the poll come amid increasing tensions between ultra-orthodox Jews who oversee the Western Wall plaza, Judaism’s holiest site, and a group of reform-minded women who hold monthly prayer services, often wearing tallitot. On Friday, May 10 ultra-Orthodox protestors clashed with Israeli police after the Women of the Wall held their monthly prayer session. A proposed plan by Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky calls for the creation of an egalitarian prayer section at the Western Wall in a bid to quell tensions over non-Orthodox prayer at the site.

4 64% of the secular public support the group

4 53% of the “traditional” non-religious public

support the group

4 26% of the traditional-religious public

support the group.